More thanFriends:

How to Monetize Open Social Networks

© SpiderWeb Connections

Susan is the media marketing creator of

Spider Web Connections.

Her focus is to simplify social media marketing and involvement businesses and non-profits

AUTHOR:Susan Schauer John

To Monetize Social Networks:

Marketers need to invite their followers to be more than just “friends”.

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Research shows:

• Customers want to be more than just a “generic” friend of a company or brand.

• Open social networks like Facebook and Twitter are where consumers expect to interact with individuals – their friends, colleagues, acquaintances and professional networks.

• Any benefits they receive from ‘friending’ companies in social networks are considered ancillary.

• In addition, consumer want direct connections with companies and with other customers.

© SpiderWeb Connections

by sean micholsonwww.socmedsean.com

What does the customer want from companies?

Customers prefer to have separate “customer communities” that are:

• Run separately from open social networks – but have strong links to them so they can easily share information.

• Proactively managed by companies.

• Tightly integrated with the companies website.

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Why don’t consumers seek relationships with companies through open social networks?

It is about context and content.

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• 81.1% of people say they would next visit the companies’ website.

• 25.7% would visit a retail store.

• Only 19% would look at it’s Facebook page.

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Once Introduced to a product or service:

Context and Content

Customers want branded customer communities to provide:

Relevant, Trusted information at every stage in their buying cycle.

The context of the buying cycle is not happening in traditional social networks. Instead, it’s happening on the broader internet – Primarily on manufacturer and retailer websites through organic search.

© SpiderWeb Connections

© SpiderWeb Connections

© SpiderWeb Connections

Research conducted by the Incyte Group: www.incytegroup.com

©spiderwebconnections

© SpiderWeb Connections

Research conducted by the Incyte Group: www.incytegroup.com

© SpiderWeb Connections

Research conducted by the Incyte Group: www.incytegroup.com

Chart #5 How Consumers Prefer to be Introduced to Branded Consumer Communities and Impact on

Participation Rates:

© SpiderWeb Connections

Research conducted by the Incyte Group: www.incytegroup.com

The Point:

The surprise is not that consumers expect to find information about products and services on a company website.

What is important to know is that consumers prefer branded customer communities over social networks when they are seeking information to make a purchase decision or accessing service and customer support.

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In other words:

• Consumers don’t want brand relationships to be part of their open social networks; instead

• They want company Websites to be more like their experiences on opens social networks.

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Therefore:

Step 1: Create a branded customer community.

Step 2: Make sure this community offers:

- strong link to social networks- content that is indexed by all search

engines - support based on consumer needs- technical flexibility

Step 3: Leverage your community to turn your best customers into advocates.

© SpiderWeb Connections

© SpiderWeb Connections

Word of mouth marketing from a companies best customers is the biggest untapped marketing opportunity out there.

References:

• Incyte: To Monetize Open Social Networks, Invite Customers to be More Than Just “Friends”. A white paper about the new form of marketing for business.

– More on study: www.getsatisfaction.com– Research conducted by the Incyte Group: www.incytegroup.com

• Jay Baer and Amber Naslund have written a terrific book called: The Now Revolution. It captures completely the new face of marketing for businesses. http://www.convinceandconvert.com/

• Tom Fishburne, “The Marketoonist” : http://tomfishburne.com/

• There are a number of great social media newsletters available for free that I read regularly and highly recommend. Each has contributed to my education and writings. They include:

– http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/

– http://maximizesocialmedia.com/

– http://www.toprankblog.com/

– http://www.bizsugar.com/

– https://www.facebook.com/business/build

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They will never be gone!!

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